My time at Crete...

Back on this thread again!
Now been with Crete close on 2.5 years and running Kellogg's Dedicated. I am, to say the least, kept very busy on the dedicated!!!
Got into a brand new truck in April....now have 53,000 on it already. Most of the Kellogg runs I do are factory to DC, DC to DC and DC to grocery (A lot of WM). I run a lot out of Minooka,IL and usually spend most of my time going to West Jefferson (Columbus) OH, Atlanta, Breinigsville PA, also often into IA,Omaha NE, Lewisville TX. Had a couple of long haul runs, currently on a Backhaul out of CA after dropping in Riverside,CA.

I will try to keep more up to date on here as I have time!!!

 

Took a small pay cut (0.02c) but I have almost made that back with year on year raises (been on it almost 2 years now.)

As far as time out goes, I generally stay out anywhere from 10-20 days.....depending on what I have going on. Technically the fleets are 6,14,21 as with the rest of Crete. The Asset Manager (as they are now called of course!) is pretty good as long as you don't give him reason to be p.o'd. Miles are excellent I usually get no less than 2,500. I enjoy it as the majority of the loads are usually pretty light (20-30,000) with the exception of Keebler loads. Some of the DC's can be a pain a the a, but thats the same everywhere!!

 

My time at Crete may be coming to an end. After 3 years I think I am pretty much done with Crete. They are closing the Ottawa,IL terminal and have moved me to the Indianapolis,IN terminal. To say I am not happy about would be understating it.

After 2 years on the Dedicated Kellogg's I had,lets say, a 'dispute' with my AM and resulted in me coming off of that and back on National. Now,my miles have been good and consistent on National,but the shift to Indy is not going well. After receiving a 'welcome' message I then get one 2 days later saying that my idle % is 'too high' and 'needs brought down'.....adding 'I do not want to hear that it is cold or you have been in the snow or are not getting miles' adding 'I have plenty of drivers in the same situation that do a right fine job with their idle', and finishing with a terse 'Questions???'....I replied with several questions on how I would achieve this and have as of the time of writing (03/07 1.35pm) not received an answer to my query.

Now,as any who look at this who are Crete drivers know that they have on most of their trucks the vaunted 'extra battery packs' (which take 3 hours to charge up) with those lovely bunk heaters and a/c's. So for some odd reason the Idle target for winter is 12% and summer is 25%.....Of which I don't believe I have ever met these targets in 3 years at Crete and have been pulled up on it once before. All of a sudden this new (new to me that is) TM is all over it and phrasing it in a way where I feel belittled,demeaned and frankly insulted. A change looms methinks.